“Nope, I’m coming,” she replied. “You know me. Anytime somebody needs me—”
“More than that,” he added, “I think this will definitely be your case. At the very least I want you on it with me.” And, with that, he hung up.
She smiled at her phone. “You know what? I think that was actually a compliment.”
“Remember that teamwork thing?”
“I’m working on it,” she grumbled. “I’m working on it. Oh, and don’t plan on jogging the Stanley Park trails today.”
“Not planning on doing any jogging—especially now.”
She smiled, got up, and said, “I don’t even have time for a shower.”
“Yes, you do,” he argued. “Just make it fast.”
She hesitated, then nodded. She was in and out in five minutes to find him with her clothes all laid out.
“And dirty clothes again.” She swore softly.
“In this case it doesn’t matter,” he noted, “because we spent most of yesterday sitting around the house, doing nothing. So, you’ll be good to go. These are the ones you came in the day before.”
She looked at them in surprise. “Did you wash them?”
“Yeah, I did it last night.”
“Shit, you’re handy to have around.”
She walked over to give him a quick kiss, but he snatched her up into a hug and kissed her thoroughly, then added, “And you remember that.”
With that, she was gone.
Chapter 1
Detective Kate Morganslid under the yellow tape and headed down the slight slope to the running path. She glanced around, orienting herself. A lot of jogging trails were along the beach. Matter of fact, jogging trails wound around all over, not just up and down the beach, and she wasn’t even exactly sure how far inland they went. A parking lot was off to the side, where four vehicles and numerous cop cars were currently parked. She glanced around but found no sign of Rodney.
As she headed in the direction where everybody was walking, she held up her badge twice, as people approached. They just nodded and let her go on through. She hadn’t been on the job long enough to know too many of the running trails, but, when she considered the number of them in the area, she wondered whether they were even technically on Stanley Park land. She would have to pull up a map to figure that out.
She saw a group of first responders had convened up ahead and noted that the attack had occurred just close enough to the parking lot that anybody could have lain in wait. Nobody would even know whether the victims had gone for a run yet. She understood from the quick description she’d gotten from Rodney that two women were killed, which presented its own problem. How did you kill two, without alerting one of them that something was wrong?
Unless more than one killer was involved. Although it happened, multiple killers working together weren’t the norm. And, if they were, they were usually couples. But then why would anybody attack two joggers? And two female joggers at that?
Kate shoved her hands in her pockets, frowning, as she contemplated the area. It was a warm sunny day, and there hadn’t been any rain, so any tracks the killer and the victims left would be easy to find. Assuming, of course, that there were any and that they were distinguishable from all the others, since this place was a heavily used jogging path.
As she approached the crowd, Rodney separated himself and walked toward her.
He smiled. “You made good time.”
She nodded. “Traffic was pretty light. I’m surprised we’re so close to the parking lot.”
“Yes, and that’s just compounding things. There are no cameras, nothing along this area to give us any assistance.”
“Of course not,” she grumbled, “and the parking lot itself is off the main thoroughfare. So, even if cameras are on the main road, it would be hard to see anyone coming in or out of this corner.”
“Yeah, we’d have to go back to that last main intersection,” Rodney noted.
“We might have to. But, at the moment, we have absolutely no indication that this person even drove in. And how many stops are there along this path? Like half a dozen?”
“Three different parking spots have easy access to the path, but these jogging paths are like a spiderweb all around the area,” he explained. “So really the killer could have come from any direction. It won’t be clear and simple at all.”